HANOI -- A new study offers a rare glimpse into North Korea's agriculture and forestry policies, and may open up new international connections with the country, say researchers.

The report describes how locally appropriate, participatory agroforestry is helping reverse food shortages and land degradation.

According to Meine van Noordwijk, co-author of the study and chief science advisor at the Kenya-based World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) — which provided technical assistance for the project — the study 'may help open up new international connections in science-based analysis of conditions and trends' in North Korea.

Forests cover more than 70 per cent of North Korea, and its struggles to contain deforestation and land degradation date back more than a century.

The study, published online by Agroforestry Systems on 24 March, describes how the country suffered frequent landslides and widespread erosion in the years following the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, which had until then been one of its main sources of external support.

Without Soviet support, the country suffered food and energy shortages, leading people to cut trees for fuel and cultivate steep slopes and upland areas for food.

Since 2002 North Korea, with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, has given user groups rights to access, harvest and plan the use of the sloping land, so that they can manage the land sustainably.

'At this stage [North Korea's] agroforestry initiatives are a socially unique opportunity for self-organisation, with potentially much wider implications in a society where discussions on ways forward are centralised and controlled,' van Noordwijk told SciDev.Net.

But he added that the implementation of pilot projects had been limited to 'relatively benign' areas of the country's south that are politically stable, and could not be transferred to other regions that were more difficult to work in.

User groups innovated local agroforestry systems that combine double-cropping annual food crops, together with horizontal strips of valuable trees such as the aronia berry (Aronia melanocarpa) for its fruit, and a species of larch tree (Larix leptolepis) for timber.

Rob Finlayson, ICRAF communication manager in Indonesia, said they hope that through the participatory agroforestry approach, needy communities will be empowered to provide for themselves while at the same time protect the shrinking forest.

Related news

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) awarded the JohnDeere 5G Series Tractors with an AE50 Award for 2016. The AE50 award highlights the year`s most innovative designs in product engineering, as chosen by a panel of international engineering experts.
Introduced to the specialty crop markets in December 2015, the narrow and highly maneuverable JohnDeere 5G Series Tractors combine improved power, performance and productivity in often confined orchard and vine crop environments....

We have a superb finance deal on this machine.
Assuming you have a trade in of £50,000 this demo combine can be purchased for 1+3 annuals at £27,500 + VAT.Simply contact us now for more details and this can be delivered to your farm in just days!Embodying DEUTZ-FAHR`s many years of experience in harvesting and its ongoing commitment to developing new technologies, processes and machinery, the C9206TSB is an exceptional machine. It combines outstanding productivity with extraordinary versatility (for...

As some Florida growers try to find new crops and the demand for biofuel stock increases globally, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers have found that sweet potato vines, usually thrown out during harvest, can serve well as livestock feed while the roots are an ideal source for biofuel.
This could be a key finding for the agriculture industry in Florida and to biofuel needs worldwide, said post-doctoral researcher Wendy Mussoline.
“The agriculture industry in...

Farmers seeking to make the most of high crop prices may increase the area of land farmed with a valuable crop and also apply more fertiliser. These two changes can have negative environmental effects, such as water pollution caused by nitrogen run-off, biodiversity loss due to land-use change, air pollution from fertiliser and the release of greenhouse gases through changes in land use. In the past decade, biofuel policies have been a major driver of rising prices for biofuel crops around the world, such as...

National Sorghum Producers announces the organization’s endorsement of Dr. Roger Marshall for the 1st Congressional District of Kansas.
“NSP is seeking a partner in government from the largest sorghum-producing Congressional district in the country,” James Born, NSP Chairman, said. “Marshall has demonstrated a willingness to learn and take action during this time of legislative and regulatory challenges.”
The NSP board of directors supports Marshall’s strong stance against...

Customer comments

No comments were found for North Korea lifts the veil on its agroforestry practices. Be the first to comment!